Anurag Basu, Motwane to promote new filmmakers

Mumbai, Feb 20 (IANS) Filmmakers Anurag Basu and Vikramaditya Motwane are set to guide 15 budding directors as part of a new initiative.

The duo will mentor 15 fresh filmmakers, who will get to show a 10-minute short film each as part of 'Humara Movie Mentor Talent for Filmmaking' -- a section at the Wassup! Andheri festival, which begins here Feb 28.

Anurag Basu, who won awards for his film "Barfi!", said he was jealous of the talents who will get a chance to showcase their work through the initiative.

"Unfortunately, when we started off, we didn't have anybody to guide us. We wanted to make films, but we didn't get proper guidance.

"I used to wait for many hours to meet the directors and I had a real tough time. These kinds of initiatives will help these new breed of talents," Anurag Basu told reporters here Wednesday.

"I'm so jealous that we didn't have this kind of stuff during our times," he added.

Agreeing with him, Motwane, who got his first big Bollywood break with "Udaan", said: "We had a bad time. Back then, it was not easy to make a mark. I wish we had these kind of initiatives in our times. We will take these talents under our wings."

He said earlier it was difficult to make a short film, but the situation has changed.

"Earlier, it was so tough to make short film... to hire cameras was so expensive! But now one can shoot a short film on a phone and get it edited. Things have changed, and for the better," said Motwane.

Wassup! Andheri is a four-day fest which will celebrate the socio-cultural spirit of the city of Mumbai and serve as a platform for different art forms such as filmmaking, painting, photography, theatre, literature, fashion, culinary, music and dance.